


The Feelings Leak

by ThePackWantstheD



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Soul Bond, Team Feels, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 19:37:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7451482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePackWantstheD/pseuds/ThePackWantstheD
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The bond was a side effect of being a Paladin that no one had expected. According to Coran all generations of Paladins were close, but bonds formed in very few. It was caused in one part by the mind melding that went into creating Voltron and in one part by the connection shared between the current Paladins. </p><p>Or: someone's leaking affection for Lance all over the other Paladins and incorrect assumptions are made.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Feelings Leak

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PossiblyPJ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PossiblyPJ/gifts).



> This was written for @PossiblyKenobi on tumblr for no real reason other then a mutual love of Voltron and best friend-ship.

Shiro was standing in the control room with Allura and Coran, trying to figure out what their next move would be, when his vision filmed over. Instead of looking at their makeshift map, he was looking at an almost translucent picture of Lance with his head thrown back laughing. One of his arms were wrapped around his waist while the other was pointed at Shiro. There was a feeling of embarrassment in his gut, but it was largely overshadowed by a deep affection for Lance.

The image faded as quickly as it'd come.

He blinked a few times as he tried to adjust to the change.

"Shiro?" Allura said. He looked up to see her and Coran had both looked away from the map, turning to him with worry in their eyes. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said.

Coran's voice was softer then usual as he asked, "Did you remember something?"

"No," Shiro assured. He flashed a smile. "It's just the bond acting up."

The bond was a side effect of being a Paladin that no one had expected. According to Coran all generations of Paladins were close, but bonds formed in very few. It was caused in one part by the mind melding that went into creating Voltron and in one part by the connection shared between the current Paladins.

Right now the bond was mostly brief flashes of things the others were seeing and vague impressions of their emotions, but the more they formed Voltron the stronger it would become. At the rate they were going, Coran suspected it wouldn't be much longer until they could pin point who was feeling what and share thoughts or images between them without much effort.

Shiro thought it spoke volumes about how close the Paladins had become in the last year that none of them were really bothered by the idea of the others being in their head. Keith and Pidge had both had some initial protests, but Shiro noticed how neither of them had ever practiced the shielding techniques Coran found for them.

"Is everyone else alright?" Allura asked.

"They're fine," Shiro confirmed. His smiled a bit as he remembered the soft fondness in his chest. He couldn't pinpoint exactly who it was, but he considering how much affection Lance laughing had brought them he figured it was Hunk. It felt a little different then the usual friendly love Hunk and Lance felt towards each other, but he couldn't think of who else it would be. "It's just Lance and Hunk."

Allura frowned. "They aren't doing anything stupid right?"

"No," Shiro said with a shake of his head. Recalling the embarrassment that had been mixed in, he added, "It felt kinda like Hunk had done something stupid that Lance was laughing at him for."

"I won't worry too much about it then," Allura declared. As she returned her attention to the map, she added in an almost dismissive tone, "That's a nice change though. Lance spends far too much time laughing at Keith. I think he could use a break. He keeps getting this weird look on his face when it happens." "

* * *

_Lance was sitting on the floor in front of the couch. He was wearing his pajamas, robe wide open, and he had his head tipped backwards so it rested on a cushion._

_He let out a soft sigh, his chest heaving with the breath, "I have three little sisters, you know? Camila, Valentina, and Soledad. I have three younger brothers too, but they're not t_ _hat much younger than me. My sisters, though, they're still so small. Camila's the oldest and she's only six." He turned his head, dark eyes locking on yours and lips stretched in a weary grin. "She was supposed to be the last kid. Mom's last attempt at getting a girl, you know? Valentina and Soledad were surprises. Well, we were all surprises. They were just even bigger surprises." He looked away again, focusing on the ceiling above him. "I love being out here, but sometimes I worry that my sisters aren't going to remember me. I worry that I'm not going to make it back to Earth and that my brothers are going to spend their lives telling my sisters stories about me just so they remember that once I existed. I worry that I am going to make it back and that my mother is going to have to reintroduce me to them."_

_You feel like a stewpot that someone just threw random ingredients into. A few pinches of envy because Lance has a family to go back to, a slice or two of pity because you can see the picture he's painting and it's not a pretty one, and a little bit of fear because you don't want to lose him but telling him that he'll see his family again feels like a promise you can't keep. Topping it all off is an aching fondness for him, the urgent desire to make him smile again._

_You open your mouth to say something, sentences forming in your mind, and-_

Hunk woke up.

He stared up at his ceiling as he tried to process what he'd just seen, what he'd just felt, through the haze of sleep.

After a moment, he let out a small groan.

It was the stupid bond again.

Following their latest Voltron formation, the bond had strengthened and they had found themselves invading each others dreams. When they were all asleep at once, their dreams turned into messy collages. One minute Hunk would be in a McDonalds eating a Big Mac for the first time in two years and the next minute he was sitting in a NASA space station with Pidge. The worst nights were the nights when one of them had a nightmare. It seeped into each of them until all five of them were sleep deprived and shaky the next morning.

When they weren't all sleeping at once, images of whatever whoever was awake was doing would flicker through. Most days, it was Pidge that stayed up too late and invaded their brains with lines of code on a computer screen.

"I'm going to kill them," Hunk muttered, voice rough with sleep. He turned onto his side and buried his face into his pillow. Even though it wasn't Pidge's usual MO, he felt pretty confident in his guess that it was Pidge keeping Lance company tonight. Shiro got nightmares pretty frequently, but he didn't usually hang out in the common areas when he was awake. He preferred to wander around, reminding himself that he was in the Castle of Lions instead of trapped in a Galra Prison cell. Keith had issues sleeping as well, good old fashion paranoia at work, but seven out of ten times it was Pidge who stayed up too late. "I'm going to kill both of them."

* * *

Pidge was sitting in the control room with their laptop balanced on their knees as they watched the lines of the Galra language turn into something they knew how to read. They had only one hand on the keyboard, the other rubbing absently at their aching hip. 

It wasn't their own pain they were reacting too, but Lance's.

Getting the information from the Galra had turned out to be a little harder than they'd been expecting and Lance had taken a blast to his side. The bond had latched onto the pain and spread it amongst the remaining four Paladins. None of them were feeling the full brunt of it, but it still stung enough to distract Pidge from working.

It was easier for them to slip into each other's thoughts when they were thinking about the same thing, so Pidge wasn't really surprised when instead of their laptop they staring at Lance. The blue paladin was sleeping off his wound, the old fashion way not the high tech science way, and whoever Pidge had latched onto was sitting by his side with their arms folded on the bed and their chin resting on their crossed arms. They were a mess of worry with an overwhelming desire for Lance to get up and move, to do something stupid or say something silly, to do something that reassured them he was alive.

Pidge slipped out of their fellow Paladin's head and into their own without much fuss.

After all this time, they were getting better and better with handling the bond.

They hummed softly as they tapped a this keyboard, wondering which one of the others was sitting with Lance. Keith had been in there earlier, when Lance had been awake and grumbling as Coran treated the burn from the laser, but Pidge doubted he was still hanging around.

Shiro then, Pidge decided. Their leader radiated worry for them every-time one of them got hurt and it was just like him to go to check up on Lance when he was hurt.

* * *

The Paladins were all gathered around the dinner table. Lance was gesturing wildly with his hands as he told a story from the Garrison, one of the many times he and Hunk had gotten themselves into trouble, with occasional input from Hunk when he exaggerated too much. The others were laughing and smiling as they listened to him, Allura ducking her head down to hide her laughter behind her hand and Shiro's elbow propped up on the table and his cheek in his hand as he watched him with a small, amused smile.

Lance was just getting to the climax of the story when he found himself staring at himself.

He wasn't that surprised that he'd slipped into someone else's head, when they were all gathered together like this and feeling the same emotions it took a level of concentration that Lance wasn't exerting right now to keep them locked away from each other, but it was a little disorienting to be looking at himself.

He could see Hunk and Shiro behind him as well as Allura and Coran across the table which meant he had to have slipped into Keith's mind.

Keith was laughing, his whole body shaking with it, but what Lance was hardly surprised by that. After over a year on the ship together, he knew that Keith wasn't nearly as broody as he liked to pretend to be. He had been closed off when they first started their quest, but the more time they spent with each other the more he opened up. He was just as goofy and fun loving and nerdy as the rest of them, it just tended to get forgotten in the face of his temper.

So more then the amusement, Lance was surprised by the open affection and _love_  that was....

Saying that it was buried under it didn't seem quite right. It didn't feel like Keith was trying to hide it. It was more like Keith had been carrying the feelings for so long that it'd settled into a part of him.

Before Lance could muse on it any more, he snapped into his own head.

He looked over at Keith immediately, his eyes going a bit wide.

"Keith," he said, his voice coming out soft and in awe. "You-"

"I thought it was Shiro in the med bay with Lance that day," Pidge said, cutting Lance off as they spoke from Keith's otherside. Lance tore his eyes away from Keith to see Pidge was staring at Keith with a look that spoke of slow dawning understanding. He glanced behind him to see Hunk and Shiro had the same look on their face. It was rare that they all slipped into the same person at once, but it seemed clear now that it had happened. "But it was you, wasn't it? You wanted to make sure he was okay."

"And that dream I had the other day," Hunk said. "I thought it was Pidge since it was the middle of the night, but it must have been you right? I thought it was weird that Pidge wanted to see Lance smile, but that makes so much sense now."

"I had a moment in the control room a few weeks ago," Shiro added, "when I thought it was Hunk, but it felt wrong. It must have felt off because I was expecting it to be platonic and it-"

Keith's cheeks were a bright cherry red, the color so dark that it almost matched the color on his suit, as he pushed himself out of his chair. "Excuse me."

"Keith, wait!" Lance called out, reaching forward to grab his arm.

Keith moved quickly, though, and Lance's fingers closed around thin air.

He didn't even think about it before pushing himself to his feet and following after him.

* * *

"Keith! Keith! Hold on a second!"

Keith ignored Lance, hurrying down the hallway.

He thought he'd been doing a good job of hiding it, even with the bond constantly forcing them into each others heads, but apparently his feelings for Lance had been leaking out all over the place. The fact that it'd come out at the table was just plain humiliating.

"Keith!" Lance shouted again. "Would you slow down please!"

"No!" Keith answered. He wasn't outright running, but part of him wanted to. This whole situation was embarrassing enough, though. He didn't really need to add Lance chasing him through the castle just to reject him to the mix. "Would you leave me alone!"

"No," Lance echoed. "I want to talk to you."

"I don't want to hear it!"

He heard Lance let out a low growl, "You are so infuriating! If you would just let me-" Keith didn't know what Lance had done, but the next moment Keith was hit with a wave of overwhelming frustration followed by awe-want- _love_. It stopped him dead in his tracks. There hadn't been a vision accompanying the feelings, but he knew instinctively that they hadn't been his. "Oh thank god that worked. I don't know what I'd have done if you kept running away from me."

"You-" Keith started, turning around to face Lance.

He stopped when he saw Lance. His cheeks were flushed from running even though their small sprint wasn't much of a workout compared to what they did on missions and his eyes were a dark storm of all the emotions he'd just shoved at Keith.

"You are such an idiot," Lance said, his voice low and dangerous as he picked up where Keith had left off. He hadn't been very far from Keith, but now he took the steps to bring them even closer. He reached up and put his palms on either side of Keith's face. "I have a crush on you the size of the fucking milky way."

"I didn't know," Keith murmured, his voice coming out a lot softer then he meant it to. His eyes darted down to Lance's lips, he was so so close, before meeting his gaze again. "I never felt it."

Lance hummed softly. He tipped just a little bit closer and Keith's tongue darted across his lips, anticipatory. "That's probably a good thing considering you just ran out on me. If it'd been the other way around and you reacted the same way, I would've taken it as a rejection."

"You get rejected all the time," Keith said. "It never seems to stop you."

"This means a lot more than harmless flirting," Lance said. Keith saw his gaze mimic Keith's from earlier, down to Keith's lips then back up. "Hey, are you okay with this? You didn't really have a choice in me finding out. If you want me to back off I will."

"Shut up," Keith said, he reached up and grabbed Lance's jacket, "and kiss me already."

Lance's eyes went wide for a moment before he gave a small nod and tipped forward to connect their lips.

The kiss was soft, slow, and tentative. It was the soft drag of Lance's lips against Keith's and Lance's thumb brushing against Keith's cheekbones.

It was nothing like Keith had imagined it would be, but then again Keith had never imagined the kisses would be anything more then a fantasy so he supposed he was okay with this.

He was _so_ okay with all of this.

**Author's Note:**

> 1) Warning for a long end note below
> 
> 2) So I spent the first half of Voltron insisting that I wasn't even going to think fic until I finished the show and by episode six I was ranting to PJ about this canon au. I DID manage enough self control to not write it until after I finished though. 
> 
> 3) The thing about this fic is that I didn't want to do a lead in, like the bond slowly forming?, so I tried to work in the details of the bond while writing but now that I'm looking at it I wonder if I missed the mark? Let me know what you think.
> 
> 4) I wasn't sure if the thing about Lance having three sisters was actually canon (like idk if you guys pulled that from another Voltron series or if it was made up), but I actually really love the idea of Lance coming from a big family and part of his personality coming from fighting for attention. So I gave him a huge family.
> 
> 5) I tried to do something...idk not unique necessarily but a little different with the second section? I'm not quite sure if I did it ok or if it turned out completely gross. 
> 
> 6) Sometimes when writing this fic, I felt like they had too much insight into other characters thoughts. Then I remembered that they can literally hear each others thoughts/feel their emotions so they probably DO have too much insight into other characters thoughts. 
> 
> 7) They/Them pronouns used for Pidge because I couldn't decide between agender or genderfluid Pidge.
> 
> 8) Im so unsure about the third section? I don't think it reads as smooth as the rest of the fic.


End file.
